D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 2 0
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You've probably seen the bumper stickers adorning seemingly half of the cars and
trucks around here. Green, shaped like Montana, they contain only two words of text:
"Get lost." It's a nice idea, to lose yourself in the exploration of Montana's treasures. But
you probably ought not take it as an imperative.
Because the sad truth is that people do get lost here. They have for hundreds of years,
and all too many of them are never found. In 1966 Susan Pearson became one of them.
A doctoral student through the University of Oregon and part-time teacher at U of M,
Pearson was a hard-working academic with no discernible reason to abandon her life.
On March 12 she visited a friend named Susan Price, who reported later that Pearson
seemed different, more nervous and evasive than usual. The next day her car was found
abandoned in Missoula, with a driver's license, keys and purse inside. Back at her house
investigators discovered that she had left a kettle boiling on the stove. She was sched-
uled to turn in an essay later that day but, sadly, that appointment was never met.
Pearson's family hired a private detective to find her, and despite her friend Susan's
memory of Pearson having mused about the possibility of leaving and starting a new
life somewhere, nothing of her has ever been found since, making the bizarre disappear-
ance of Pearson one of the state's oldest cold cases.
The only defense against something like this happening that I know of is similar to
the advice already proffered: stay inside, don't touch or do anything, shut your eyes
tightly and focus on not disappearing. Good luck out there. It's a big, scary state.
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